Safety from Adventure
by thefairestofthemall
Summary: Prompt. Snow wants to go riding with Charming. He doesn't allow it because of her pregnancy, which leads her to break her husband's rules. [Snowing/Overprotective Charming/Pre-curse FTL/Adorable fluff]


**Anon Prompt:** Snow wants to go riding with Charming around the castle grounds, but he doesn't want her to because she's in the beginning of her pregnancy. (Snow is going stir crazy in the castle.)

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Once Upon A Time or any of its characters, etc..

**Author's Note: **Truthfully, this is nothing but pure, fluffy, FTL pre-curse Snowing (along with a little meaningless fight)!

Enjoy!

* * *

"_It's too dangerous, Snow! I'm not endangering your life and our child's on my account!"_

His piercing words are restlessly repeated over and over again in her thoughts. The more they are, the more they begin to mock her, and the more it increases her sheer desire to disobey his orders after every minute that passes by. It isn't that she _wants_ to purposely endanger her life or the baby's, but rather that being unable to step outside, let alone the palace gardens, was driving her _mad_.

Ever since she had informed her husband of her pregnancy, Charming had become increasingly overprotective of her. She wasn't allowed to walk through the palace gardens by herself in fear of someone kidnapping or harming her (Regina and her threat from their wedding was always mentioned whenever she chose to argue against him) unless she was accompanied by a ridiculous amount of guards forming a circular wall around her. Even when she was walking through the palace corridors, there was always either a servant, a guard, or her husband himself walking by her side and tending to her every need. It was appreciated, but it was also a little invasive and overbearing at times.

Had she not been the most wanted fugitive alive months ago? The one who defeated the Queen's ruthless guards, stole from her carriages, and dealt with all creatures alike? Had she also not been the princess who rose from the ashes with her prince to take back the kingdom _together_ as a _family_?

Riding around the outskirts of the palace grounds with her _husband_ and with _weapons_ at their disposal was _nothing_ compared to all the horrors she's lived through in the past.

It would have been nothing, that is, if she were not three months pregnant with their first child.

Despite it all, she sighs in defeat at the thought. Her shimmering green eyes are glued against the bright blue skies filled with fluttering birds, fingernails tapping impatiently against the arm of her chair, while the other hand slowly rubs the small yet very present roundness of her stomach. Unlike the free birds, she was trapped in a cage of her own — a cage preventing her from experiencing the fresh air and the freedom she had always loved for as long as she could remember. It was so close, yet so far away.

Perhaps not too far away…

Charming would be waltzing his way out of the meeting room to join her any minute, and yet the mere thought still didn't stop her from glancing over to Johanna, who had been valiantly standing by her side all this time.

"Johanna, could you please prepare a cup of green tea for me?" she asked sweetly, innocently, though the woman knew better than anyone the sneakiness that could be hidden behind her eyes.

"But Snow, your husband said—" Johanna protested, sighing as she unwillingly left seconds later under her unwavering insistence. By then, Snow had already hurried off to the palace stables, saddled her horse, and mounted. Though she knew the stable boy could have done the task himself, this was something she could still do on her own. (_Thank goodness_ she hadn't changed out of her riding attire from earlier either.)

"_Snow!_"

Her husband shouting her name is nothing but a distant echo amongst the gentle breeze tangling itself into her long, ebony locks as she rides as far away from him as possible. Freedom feels so wonderful, like the first snowfall of every winter, but it is always short lived. Charming has always been a much better rider than she, and catches up to her in minutes. Under his dark glare, she halts her steed and swiftly dismounts to face him: her disapproving, enraged, overprotective husband.

"Snow, I _told_ you to stay in the palace. You never listen! You don't know if Regina could be waiting for you here! She could have hurt you, or worse, killed you! You never listen to me! Do you think I tell you these just to hear myself speak?!" he reprimands, his voice stern, angry, and all that always succeeds to shatter her heart into millions of tiny pieces.

"I'm sorry." It is the only words she can utter through lowered eyelids, dark eyelashes fluttering against her pale, white skin, until she meets her husband's eyes with a frown. "All I can say is that I'm sorry. I wanted to ride with you without an army at our disposal. Our child is fine."

Carefully, she places his hands on her growing stomach, her red lip upturned into a small pout. His gaze softens immediately, and she doesn't have to hear anything to know exactly what he's thinking. _I don't want to lose you. I need you. I love you. I don't want you to get hurt. _"You won't ever lose me," she promises softly, framing his face with her hands. "I will always find you."

He leans in to press his lips against hers for a kiss right then, and she melts into his embrace. The slow, soft kisses turn into lingering kisses, butterfly kisses, passionate kisses, until his chest is pressed against hers, the thrilling sensations of their heartbeats resonating between them, and she's sighing softly against his lips. During this moment, there could have been a war happening around them, and she never would have noticed. Like this, it's always been just them, and no one else.

"I'm still mad," he mumbles softly, interrupting the moment, pressing his lips against hers again. "But I love you, Snow."

"Mhm. And I love _you_, Charming," she hums, pulling away to gaze lovingly into his sparkling blue eyes. "But you could always keep kissing me instead?"

Which is exactly what he did until the soft, white clouds in the sky began to darken, and the prince rushed to get his princess home safely. As irritating as his overprotectiveness could be, she loved him even more for it. Especially when he wraps his arm around her stomach, keeps her close to him for the rest of the day, and whispers softly against the hollow of her ear as they're walking together.

"It's going to be a boy, right?"


End file.
